Robbie Birkner’s Blog

Archive of "Technology" Category

I am extremely pleased to share our latest Press Release with you. I have personally known Darshaun for > 10 years now, who has become a good friend. He is a great individual with an awesome team in Japan. We just spent a week of amazing meetings together with some very interesting potential clients in Japan!

Exclusive distribution partnership will deliver the most comprehensive set of Japanese language domain services and support for registrars, resellers, and hosting companies in the country of Japan.

Vancouver, CANADA – September 18, 2010 – HEXONET GmbH (www.hexonet.net) announced today an exclusive distribution agreement with WIXI Inc. of Japan. The agreement gives WIXI exclusive rights to provide HEXONET’s industry leading domain platforms and services to Japanese registrars, resellers, and hosting companies. WIXI’s extensive knowledge and experience in the Japanese market will be leveraged to completely transform HEXONET’s technology to perfectly meet the higher support and language specific needs of Japanese companies.

HEXONET has been rapidly growing and now services over a million domains on behalf of its registrar and reseller clients around the world. Innovative technology has always been the key to the company’s success, like its newest service, an Expression of Interest (EOI) service platform, which allows API based reservation of any thousand new pending gTLD offerings from ICANN. Though technology is critical for resellers and registrars, in some countries, language trumps technology, not matter how good it is. And for these countries, HEXONET needs to find the right partner. For Japan, the perfect partner is WIXI Inc.

“Japan is an interesting and ripe market for HEXONET, however a very difficult one to conquer,” said Robert Birkner, HEXONET’s Chief Strategy Officer. “The President of WIXI, Darshaun Nadeau, is a renown expert on the Japanese domain market, his knowledge and his team’s experience will be able to build the relationships and provide the services in Japanese like no one else; this partnership allows HEXONET to focus only on delivering the best technology, which is exactly what we do.”

Darshaun Nadeau, President of WIXI Inc. believes the partnership between the two companies is perfectly matched for the Japanese market. According to Darshaun, “HEXONET is the most functional, reliable, and fastest registrar platform of its kind and is the platform of choice for WIXI’s itself; together we are going to dominate the Japanese market.”

In my series of posts on new TLDs, the goal has always been to inform and provide insight, from the perspective of a registrar. With there being so much focus on ICANN and on registry operators during the initial stages of the nTLD process, we felt the voice of the registrar needed to be heard. This is because, from our perspective, success for any new TLD will greatly depend on its support of registrars.

My first post, “Does HEXONET Have Plans to be a REGISTRY Operator for newTLDs?“, was intended to make it clear that as a long standing registrar, our goal is to make any nTLD a success by doing what we have always done, by being a great registrar and nothing more. My second post, “Choosing a Registry Operator for New TLDs“, was done to help prospective registry operators think critically about there registry platform, probably the single biggest decision that will affect their registry today and for years to come. I wanted to give some key insights on registry platforms from our nearly ten years of operational knowledge as a registrar working with these various solutions and technologies.

Making It Easy for Registrars to Start Selling Your nTLD

Today’s post is to take the next step beyond the ICANN process and registry platforms, to start talking about registrars, the gatekeepers to the end customer. For a prospective registry, the biggest questions about registrars is how to get as many of them on board as quickly as possible. Most registrars are very busy selling domains, supporting domains, managing systems, and simply running their business. And for many registrars, engineering resources are tight or non-existent. As a result, for registrars, choosing to implement a nTLD requires a substantial return on investment.

Given that even adding one nTLD for a registrar is a commitment, how will the possibility of three, four or ten nTLD introductions in a given year affect that choice? Registry operators need to be cognizant of possible slow registrar acceptance and implementation. Sounds a bit scary right? The good news is that HEXONET has a solution called RegistrarOC (Registrar Operations Center) that helps registrar’s quickly, easily, and cost-effectively add any new TLD.

Help for Registrars in a Crowded nTLD Marketplace

Potentially hundreds of nTLDs will be available over the next years. Some of them are listed below. A more complete list of declared and potential applicants has been published by Kieren McCarthy, CEO of .NXT.

What if there was a way for registrars to simply add a nTLD to their sales system with little or no technical effort for registry integration, testing and on-going maintenance? In this scenario, registrars can then offer a nTLD as soon it is available, even offer pre-registration! This is exactly how HEXONET’s RegistrarOC solution helps registry operators and registrars.

HEXONET’s RegistrarOC solution takes away all the technical and engineering overhead for registrars. Designed to be plug and play, once a registrar is connected with the RegistrarOC solution, adding a nTLD is as simple as throwing a switch (add an accreditation and go!). We even help and guide new businesses become accredited or help existing registrars quickly add new accreditations.

HEXONET has successfully managed a comprehensive and extensive portfolio of gTLDs and ccTLDs accreditations for nearly a decade. We specialize in inter-operating with all the registry platforms at industry leading reliability and performance. So with RegistrarOC, not only do registrars plug in to the technology, but more importantly, they also plug in to all the operational and engineering expertise garnered by HEXONET over the years.

Ensure you are in compliance with various ICANN requirements, such as RDE (Registrar Data Escrow), WDRP (Whois-Data-Reminder-Policy), …etc.

Ensure your data is always in-sync with the registry – a highly underestimated task by registrars that is potential very expensive future cost

If you are interested in learning more then either visit the “RegistrarOC” solutions page or send us an email at sales@hexonet.net. We would be happy to arrange a quick conference call to explain the product in more detail.

After reading up on the Libyan government shutting down the popular URL link shortening service called VB.ly. NIC.ly I thought the article “Does Size Matter?” would be interesting for my readers. In addition many registrars advertise ccTLD for URL-Shorteners and I believe this is not the right way of advertising a ccTLD. This article is definitely an eye-opener and worth reading. I hope you enjoy it.

Earlier this month, many of our readers heard about the Libyan government shutting down the popular URL link shortening service called VB.ly. NIC.ly, the official registry operator for the .ly domain space, the official country-code top level domain of Libya, is now scrutinizing anyone using all .ly shortening services. In fact, NIC.ly has gone as far as restricting four character or less .ly registrations to only Libyian nationals. This decision is already having implications for companies that utilize .ly (bit.ly and ow.ly come to mind) in their URL shortening services.

What is a URL Shortener?

URL shorteners are not new. In fact, URL shortening services have been around since 2002, transforming long URLs into short manageable links. Among the most popular url shortening services are Bit.ly and Tinyurl. Twitter and its 140 character message limit has been driving force behind these services in recent years.

Long URLs are cumbersome. With character limits in tweets, status updates and other modes of short-form publishing (micro-blogging), a shortened URL enables users to communicate rather than waste valuable space. Social media and the mobile Internet have made character limits front and center for millions of users.

2. Comprehensive Tracking (aka Click Analytics)

A number of URL shortening services now provide comprehensive tracking features. For example, Google’s URL shortener goo.gl includes a dashboard that shows statistics. These statistics include clicks over time, top traffic referrers, top countries users are visiting from, and even the type of browsers used or the user’s operating system.

3. Potential SEO Benefits

SEO via URL shortening is debatable. However, according to SearchEngineWatch.com , “Goo.gl could work into Google’s ranking algorithm and become a factor in real-time search results, and possibly even regular search results if the shortener proves popular. With all this data on what links are being shared and clicked, Google can see what’s trending, and likely use this as a ranking factor.”

What are Some of the Disadvantages of Using a URL Shortener?

1. Potential Domain Hijacking Threats

There is a possibility that someone could hijack the domain and forward all of the active shortened URLs to a malware.

2. Gone with the Wind?

As seen with the registry operator of .LY, a ccTLD registry can easily change their registration policies or many even go out of business. Additionally, small ccTLD registries many also have under-provisioned DNS systems increasing the likelyhood of DNS look-up failure.

3. Middleman and Reliability

According to Joshua Schachter, founder of the popular bookmarking site Delicious.com, “The extra layer of indirection slows down browsing with additional DNS lookups and server hits. A new and potentially unreliable middleman now sits between the link and its destination. And the long-term archivability of the hyperlink now depends on the health of a third party …”

Innovation Moving Forward…

1. In the future, perhaps registries or registrars will include URL shortening capabilities with every domain. This could be a very powerful tool for branding.

2. ICANN is going to open up the domain name space with the introduction of new gTLDs (estimated 2012). We may see corporations brand thier own TLDs for URL shorteners?

Though technologies like the Domain Name System (DNS) are fundamental to making the Internet work, businesses using the Internet, typically don’t need to know the details of the technology to make use of it. Most resellers go on without ever giving such technologies a second thought. However, for those businesses, spending a little time trying to understand important technology shifts can result in real benefits and competitive advantage. DNSSEC (Secure DNS) is one such technology that resellers should monitor.

Without going into the technical mumbo jumbo, in a nutshell, DNSSEC is a secure version of the well established and insecure version of DNS. Cache poisoning, the unauthorized access and modification of DNS caches to intentionally spoof websites, hijack email, and even steal passwords has been a major vulnerability. DNSSEC ensures cache poisoning is prevented, that DNS data cannot be forged and that data originating from its stated source is not modified in transit.

DNSSEC is a High Value Security Feature

With the domain and hosting markets being so competitive, a new feature, especially a high value security feature like DNSSEC, can create an opportunity to gain customers. This is particularly true if one’s competitors are unable to offer the same feature. Right now, .DE, .ORG, .EU and .SE domains registered at HEXONET can be signed with the registrant’s DNSSEC validation keys. DNSSEC not only adds a technical layer of security for the domain holder, but more importantly, provides the registrant the peace of mind that their domain can’t be used for malicious purposes.

First DNSSEC Accredited European Registrar with .ORG

Robert Birkner, Chief Strategy Officer of HEXONET, “wants to congratulate the Public Interest Registry, for being the first generic Top-Level-Domain registry to fully deploy DNSSEC. We are delighted to support PIR in many of its initiatives and in particular its leadership in DNSSEC.”

“We congratulate 1API for passing the DNSSEC certification for .ORG,” says Alexa Raad, CEO of .ORG, the Public Interest Registry, “and applaud them for taking a leadership role in the European registrar community for supporting DNSSEC.”

Why Choose HEXONET’s Future-proof DNSSEC

HEXONET is one of the first registrars to fully support DNSSEC. In fact, HEXONET’s implementation of DNSSEC supports both DS based and DNSKEY based delegation to ensure seamless interoperability with a wide variety of registries for today and in the future. Technically this means, as a HEXONET reseller, we have you covered no matter how individual registries implement their DNSSEC.

“”As pioneer in DNSSEC, .SE welcomes 1API as a registrar that can offer DNSSEC to their customers.” – Danny Aerts, CEO of the SE Registry

When I look back at the last three months, I am simply amazed at all the progress and goals HEXONET has accomplished. Without a doubt, much of our success is directly attributable to our colleagues in Germany, who have toiled and put in long hours to get things done. Since February here is a short list of achievements:

HEXONET Services Inc. was opened in Vancouver, Canada

www.hexonet.net was modified to include new information about our Vancouver regional office

Embarked on a product/service streamlining process to refocus engineering resources on those products our clients use most … (project is ahead of schedule thanks to Engineering in Germany)

Substantially renegotiated many purchase prices for the benefit of our clients

Streamlined our sales process

Added HTML notice logic to HEXONET systems

Following the successful launch of our EPP 1.0 ccTLD Gateway is the release of our easy to use EPP 1.0 User Manual and Guide; the EPP 1.0 Gateway is the first of its kind, allowing registrars and resellers to connect to hundreds of ccTLDs via standard EPP, even if the underlying Registry is not EPP compliant; if you are serious about growing your ccTLD sales, I encourage anyone to test drive the EPP gateway for free at http://www.hexonet.net/epp.php

Refined our RegistrarOC (Registrar Operations Center) product to support any TLD HEXONET currently offers; check out why our clients are raving about RegistrarOC

Successfully launched the new TLD .TEL with amazing results, HEXONET was able to register over 90% of all our pre-registrations

What to expect in the next 2 – 4 weeks:

HEXONET is on the verge of releasing a new control panel with added features and enhancements; as of May 4th 2009, all HEXONET customers will have access to the new control panel; HEXONET Germany customers can continue to use the old control panel if they wish.

HEXONET is making available more information and content on the website for all clients; an updated website navigation structure will make accessing this information even easier

The most important HEXONET newsletter to date, announcing the new Control Panel and a wide array of promotions, don’t miss out on this one!

HEXONET will continue to streamline and make our operations/systems even more efficient

HEXONET is dedicated to adding even more TLDs, providing for our clients the widest selection of TLDs industry wide

HEXONET’s control panel will continually be upgraded throughout the year; this upcoming first release is all about streamlining and efficiency, the subsequent releases will be focused on value added services and functionality to make running your business easier and more cost effective.

HEXONET will be releasing more revenue generating products for our clients to resell

HEXONET is moving fast and we plan to move faster throughout the year. Stay tuned for even more client upgrades and benefits for you every quarter!

As many of you know, I ended my tenure with DoMEn at the end of January. Overall, my experience and time at DoMEn was more than outstanding, especially having the opportunity to work with the great team there. Though I may be a little biased, I think DotME will likely be one of the hottest ccTLDs for the foreseeable future. I’ve been in this industry a long time and I can say DotME has really opened the door on catchy, call to action domains – date.me for example. The number of new registrations and growth of the TLD since its inception bear witness to its success and future. I wish everyone at DoMEn much success.

Working for a new registry was a great opportunity. Registrars are the heart of our business and their passion for domains has always inspired me. It is this passion that I was looking for in my next endaevor. So when the opportunity came up for me to work with a former colleague and friend, Jens Wagner, I had to jump at the opportunity.

Back when I was at Key-Systems, I had the pleasure of working with Jens, where we jointly built from scratch and managed highly profitably two of the three divisions of Key-Systems. During those days, Jens and I became good friends and even with my departure from the company in May of 2006, I knew we would stay in regular contact as we both went our separate ways.

My path took me to Canada and eventually to DoMEn. Jens’ path lead him to concentrate on his own successful domain company HEXONET GmbH. And as of March 1, 2009, our paths crossed again with my appointment as Chief Strategy Officer of HEXONET and 1API (the house registrar of HEXONET). Remarkably, HEXONET in a few short years has grown into a very successful domain services company, serving thousands of resellers, startups and service providers worldwide. Already they manage over 400K domains for thier clients. For me, HEXONET’s success is a result of their top notch engineers, who have developed one of the finest, most powerful, and highly reliable domain reseller platforms in the industry. I am overly excited to be working with such a talented group, many of which are former colleagues at Key-Systems, as well as, some respected industry contacts I have know for years.

Combined with my appointment as CSO is the opening of HEXONET’s first international subsidiary, HEXONET Services Inc. in Vancouver, Canada. HEXONET has thousands of resellers in the Americas and these resellers have been demanding a regional office. North American resellers and businesses are some of the most aggressive companies in the world when it comes to innovation and developing new business models. The Vancouver office will serve to channel the company’s most innovative technologies to resellers across Canada and the United States. One such technology I can mention is HEXONET’s EPP 1.0 Gateway platform, which makes it possible for any reseller or ISP to quickly offer hundreds of Top-Level-Domains (gTLDs like .COM, .NET, .ASIA, .INFO or country code Top-Level-Domains like .UK, .BE, .CN, .US, etc.) from one provider. Though ccTLDs are in high demand, many such TLDs have not been available to the public since resellers don’t have the time or energy to implement hundreds of proprietary connections for each and every ccTLD. HEXONET and EPP 1.0 gives resellers access to hundreds of ccTLDs with a single connection, which is exactly the kind of innovation they have been longing for.

I remember the day I left Key-Systems, Jens pulled me aside and said, “Robbie, our paths will cross again and we will do something great together.” Little did I know back then that this would hold true so soon. Though is took us awhile to get back on the same track, the road ahead looks very bright and I am very excited about the future.

A very close friend of mine and a former colleague, Timo Reitnauer, recently moved to Australia and then onwards to New Zealand, where he became a founder of the ideegeo Group.

I remember the day I met Timo for the first time. He had applied for a job at Key-Systems as a Designer. He made a really good impression and he was a perfect match for the small team at Key-System, so he was hired in June 2002. After getting the job at Key-Systems, I basically worked hand in hand with Timo for four years. We sat in the same office and he soon became my right hand. He was an individual you could rely on one hundred percent At that point in time, I was traveling a lot and reaching out to new business opportunities while still maintaining the reseller channel. Without Timo, I would not have been able to do both. He worked very independently and needed little guidance. Basically, he was one of those individuals any company would feel lucky to have. He was a great asset to Key-Systems and I am sure it was a huge loss when he left Key-Systems to venture to Australia.

Since Australia, he has moved to New Zealand where he became Co-Founder of the ideegeo Group.

The ideegeo Group is a New Zealand based provider of technology support services for the domain industry. They manage software research and development and additionally offer consultancy services to domain registrars worldwide. Their team of international experts has an in-depth knowledge of the domain name market and related business models such as hosting, SaaS and web application development.

Domain registrations are managed through ideegeo’s dedicated sister company 12idn Ltd, a domain registrar specialised in accreditations for ccTLDs particularly with regard to registries which allow the registration of Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs). All technical services are provided by their second subsidiary, domarino. One of the first product offerings of domarino is a trustee services (CED Service) for .ASIA domain names which is available via an API to registrars worldwide.

One of the more exciting projects they are currently working on is an iPhone application which will be released within the next weeks.
@Timo: I wish you and your partners the best of success with these ventures. Hope to see you in Vancouver soon!